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The purpose of this paper is to investigate the climate for co‐operation, from both the supplier and buyer perspectives, for its impact on co‐operative activities. Climate encompasses the constructs of cross functional barriers, participation by the respondent in strategic customer/supply decisions and expectation of the continuity of the relationship, competitive pressure and institutionalized beliefs about co‐operation in the firm's industry.

The design of the study is based on a cross‐sectional mail‐based survey of 89 buyer and supplier dyads, involving 178 manufacturing companies. First, the psychometric properties of the proposed constructs were assessed. Then the relationships among the proposed constructs were tested by structural equation modeling for the supplier and then the buyer samples.

Both parties' co‐operative behaviors were strongly influenced by the expected continuity of the relationship. Suppliers differed from buyers in that they were influenced by institutional beliefs about co‐operation. Involvement in decision making positively affected shared planning activities for the suppliers whereas it affected relationship flexibility for the buyers. Lastly, buyers in contrast to suppliers were influenced by competitive pressure.

As a cross‐sectional study about complex inter‐firm relationships, the research does not directly capture relationship effects over time. The paper also does not address how climate affects the formulation and implementation of dysfunctional buyer‐supplier relationships.

Buyers and suppliers should be aware that there are significant similarities and differences in how their partners respond to the context in which they operate. This knowledge is important in understanding what drives the other party's behavior in the formal and informal negotiations and problem solving that characterize an ongoing relationship.

The research uses dyadic data to understand both sides of the buyer supplier relationship. It introduces constructs such as institutional belief and cross‐functional barriers and functional involvement in strategic planning as components of a new concept called co‐operative climate. This concept is found to be relevant to both buyer and supplier perspectives.

The United Kingdom differs from most of its partners in the European Community in that its farmers generally prefer non co‐operative channels of distribution for their produce. The proportion of farm produce distributed through co‐operatives is considerably smaller than is generally the case in Europe. This paper is concerned with the contribution of co‐operative organisational structure and behaviour to the variations in co‐operative market shares found in European agriculture. It is argued that there is a clear relationship between organisational factors and the market position of the co‐operative sector in each country and that this has implications for the encouragement of co‐operative organisation which is an aim of UK public policy.

Many previous studies have indicated that by acting collectively, agrifood SMEs can improve performance and enhance their contribution to local areas. Although collective action between agrifood SMEs proliferates in many southern European countries, relatively few successful cases appear to exist in Greece. The purpose of this paper is to explore the reasons for this, by relating the theoretical conditions of successful collective action to evidence from existing studies on the Greek situation.

Drawing from the literature on small firm networks, and previous empirical studies of agrifood SMEs in Europe, the paper identifies six conditions that underpin successful collective action: three contextual (type of market, social cohesiveness, institutional involvement) and three behavioural (market orientation, co‐operative spirit, existence of an initiator).

Relating these conditions to existing evidence on Greek agrifood SMEs, the analysis suggests that socio‐cultural factors and institutional involvement are often barriers to successful collective action. However, the presence of at least some examples of strong agrifood SME networks in Greece indicates that such barriers can be overcome. The paper concludes by identifying the research questions to be tackled by future empirical study of Greek agrifood SMEs.

The paper explores the important phenomenon of small firm networks in the under‐researched country of Greece. In addition, the paper also presents an original synthesis of key conditions under which collective action thrives, drawn from many previous studies of networks and collective action in the agrifood sector throughout Europe.

It has been recognised that there is importance of trust within organisations. There is also a recognised theme that trust must move beyond rational or calculative trust to various forms of social trust. This paper makes clear the potential importance of social trust, and its value to emerging organisations. In the new era of faster, looser, more rapidly changing connections between people and groups, trust based on inferences about the motives, character and intentions of others is becoming more central to the ability of organisations to manage their dynamics efficiently and effectively and ensure their growth and survival.

This article aims to explore the nature and functioning of trust in work teams. Trust is defined as a multi‐component variable with distinct but related dimensions. These include propensity to trust, perceived trustworthiness, co‐operative and lack of monitoring behaviours. A model was tested relating trust with perceived task performance, team satisfaction, and two dimensions of organisational commitment, i.e. attitudinal and continuance. Survey data from 112 teams(n=395) was collected in three social care institutions in The Netherlands. The results are supportive of a multi‐component structure for trust and of its importance to the functioning of teams and organisations. Work team trust appeared strongly related with team member's attitudes towards the organisation. Trust between team members was positively associated with attitudinal commitment and negatively with continuance commitment. Trust was also positively related with perceived task performance and with team satisfaction. In addition, perceived task performance appeared strongly related to team satisfaction.

Applies a computer model GAIA (Groups of Adaptive Inferencing Agents) to simulate the lifecycle of artificial groups directed by agendas which specify varying strategies for collective problem solving. Within GAIA, groups of artificial agents dynamically learn and interact by proposing, combining and testing inductive hypotheses in the form of genetic building blocks. Agents share and combine building block solutions to evolve decision trees to respond to environmental inputs. Effects of agendas which emphasize stages of conservative and liberal problem solving strategies over a group’s lifecycle were simulated. Conservative strategies emphasize consensus and collective memories within groups. Liberal strategies emphasize challenges to collective memory and individual agent predictions. Agendas which vary from conservative to liberal resulted in the poor group solutions. Significantly better group solutions were produced by an agenda varying from liberal to conservative and back to liberal (L‐C‐L). The L‐C‐L agenda focuses on critical evaluation and rewards for individual contribution in the beginning and ending lifecycle stages and provides a middle stage of collective exploration.

Co-operation activities play a central role for the development of a tourism destination, and require a co-operative approach among numerous different actors to manage and market a tourism destination. This paper aims to describe the characteristics of leadership networks in tourism destinations and their impact on destination development.

The paper discusses network relationships of destination leaders, as in their collectivity, leaders shape and influence the destination's core services, strategic orientation and innovation capability. The research is based on the examination of relevant literature and a quantitative survey conducted in five selected tourism destinations in the Tirol, Austria.

The article discusses leadership networks in community-structured destinations, providing insights into its organizational structure and dynamic behaviour. Moreover, the paper illustrates the network characteristics and its influence on the development of the tourism destination. Thus, implications for destination management can be derived.

Discussions on leadership have usually been limited to firms and have not yet fully embraced the network and destination level. The originality of the paper is to provide insights in destination leadership and networking activities of leaders within destinations by means of a quantitative approach and thus adds to the growing body of literature on the functionalities of destination leadership networks, their structures and mechanisms.

Presents a new theory about the communication structure used by ocean‐living odontocetes. Draws conclusions from eight biological singularities in dolphin communication found in empirical research but not yet put into a systematic context. They suggest the interpretation that in dolphin communication information is encoded by way of SOund PAttern VAriation. Discusses the formal prerequisites of this theory; negative and positive predictions are made. Interprets both the results of Bastian's communication experiment and the scouting behaviour observed in the wild as evidence that dolphins possess a highly developed SOund PAttern VAriation LAnguage (SOPAVALA). Complements this by examining considerations concerning the evolutionary process which may have made this development possible. Discusses characteristic features of the proposed new language structure and suggests how to decode successfully and understand a dolphin's SOPAVALA, should it exist.

This monograph reports and compares “desirable” leadership traits, and leadership traits actual exhibited by managers and supervisors as defined by responses on the original English and a Chinese language translation of the Ohio State University leadership behaviour description questionnaire XII (LBDQ XII). From anecdotal evidence and personal experience, the researcher found considerable difficulty in transferring research results from Hong Kong, Taiwan and Singapore to useful practice in the interior of China and performed this study in an attempt to gain understanding for management training courses. Data was collected for 220 managers and supervisors in two hotels in the interior of China. Both expatriate and indigenous Chinese managers were included. All supervisors were Chinese. A significant (p < 0.05) difference between Chinese and non‐Chinese expatriates was observed for factor: Tolerance of Freedom, interestingly, with the Chinese managers indicating more tolerance of freedom than the expatriate managers. Nonetheless, Chinese supervisors believed the ideal manager should be even more tolerant of freedom than their managers (p < 0.01).

The paper aims to investigate the problems encountered in retail international joint ventures (IJVs). It synthesizes and applies transaction cost economics and strategic management theories to help explain the dynamics within the international retail joint venture (IRJV) process.

Applies a multiple case study approach based on a sample of UK‐based retailers during the retail internationalisation process.

Highlights the key problem areas encountered by retailers involved in IJV activity. Concludes that in contrast to production‐driven joint venture activity, retailers appear to have a shorter and intensive adjustment period to effectively co‐ordinate operational activity and bridge the corporate and behavioural differences between themselves and the partner.

Focuses on a sample of UK retail companies only. Given the intensive instantiation process, a predetermined approach may be more appropriate for retail firms to avoid problematic outcomes in IJV management.

Retail companies may experience post formation risk in joint ventures, arising from partner resource limitations. Differences in management capability between the partners may lead to ineffective collaboration and poor operational performance.

Addresses a previously neglected area of research and provides insights into the management of IRJV. Examines the relevance of key theoretical perspectives in relation to the problems encountered in IRJV activity.